FOR-PROFIT STORE AIMS TO HELP NONPROFIT

A tiny thrift store has opened in Fallbrook with its roots in the memory of two boys and a tragedy that shocked and saddened the county 20 years ago about 65 miles to the south.

The grand opening of Milena’s A Thrift Boutique and More at East Hawthorne and Vine Street in Fallbrook this month is inextricably linked to the murders of Jonathan Sellers, 9, and Charlie Keever, 13. Indeed, Milena Phillips’ entire life is forever linked to March 27, 1993, when her son, Jonathan, and his friend Charlie, went for a bike ride along the banks of the Otay River and never came home.

The thrift store, stocked almost entirely with donated used items, is a for-profit business, but Milena’s goal is to donate most every dollar made, minus expenses and startup costs, to the recently formed Jonathan Sellers and Charlie Keever Foundation, a nonprofit organization Milena and her ex-husband, Dennis Sellers, established three years ago.

She hopes that one day the foundation will be able to host safety presentations at schools throughout the county.

“We’re a for-profit that raises money for the nonprofit,” said Phillips, who now lives in Fallbrook.

“The foundation has a safety program we want to launch this September. We will go into schools and teach kids how to be safe, but in an entertaining way with a theatrical performance that’s not threatening or scary.”

She said support has been fabulous. “All the donating has come from family, friends and people who know what we are all about.”

The foundation also hopes to routinely host candlelight vigils for the families of murder victims.

One such vigil was held last year, and this month, on March 27, the 20-year anniversary of the boys’ deaths, a second will be held at Swiss Park Banquet Hall, 2001 Main St. in Chula Vista from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis will be the keynote speaker at the event, which will remember the boys as well as other murder victims.

The foundation also will hold the “JSCK Ride For Safety San Diego” 10K bike ride fundraiser on June 1.

For information about the foundation, the vigil and the bike fundraiser, go to the foundation’s Facebook page.

The banquet hall in Chula Vista is less than a mile from where the boys disappeared after going to buy burgers and candy on a Saturday afternoon. They were returning home on their bicycles along the river when they were abducted. Two days later their bodies were found inside a man-made brush enclosure by the river bank. It would be eight years before advanced DNA testing connected the killings to Scott Erskine, who was already serving a 77-year sentence for raping a woman six months after he murdered the boys.

Erskine has been on death row at San Quentin since 2004.

In November a small park was dedicated to the boys in Imperial Beach. The Jonathan Sellers & Charlie Keever Outdoor Educational Activity Center is just a few feet from the Bayshore Bikeway at the end of 13th Street.